1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a tablet feeder and in particular to a tablet feeder featuring a partitioning member that restrains tablets discharged from a pocket portion of a tablet array member.
2. Description of Related Art
Prior art document information relating to the tablet feeder of the present invention is as follows.                Japanese patent Laid-open publication H2-205523        Japanese patent Laid-open publication H9-39910        
Japanese patent Laid-open publication H2-205523 discloses a tablet feeder arranged so that a tablet accommodating section in which a plurality of tablets are accommodated is mounted on a motor base in which a motor is housed, and that a tablet array member disposed in the tablet accommodating section is rotated by the motor so that the tablet can be discharged outside. Specifically, on the outer periphery of the tablet array member accommodated in the tablet accommodating section, a plurality of pockets are defined so as to be recessed along the direction of the rotational axis at specified intervals, so that the tablets in the tablet accommodating section are fed one after another to the pockets. In the pockets, the tablets vertically arrayed are partitioned by a partitioning member as the tablet array member rotates. Thus, the feeder is able to discharge out only the lower side one of the tablets retained in the pocket through a tablet discharge hole.
However, in the above tablet feeder, the partitioning member is made of a thin metal plate, and is disposed at a portion of the outer periphery of the tablet array member. For this reason, although there occurs no problem if the tablets in the pockets are arrayed properly, there are some cases where the tablets, if they have been caught halfway, are not partitioned well by the partitioning member. That is, because the partitioning member will go beyond the caught tablet, the tablet may be sandwiched between the partitioning member and the tablet array member so that the tablet may be damaged or chipped, or in some cases, the partitioning member may be deformed. This would cause a problem in that the tablets could not be discharged properly through the tablet discharge hole.
In order to solve the problems, in Japanese patent Laid-open publication H9-39910 each partition portion of the partitioning member is formed into a shape of a brush. Once the brush constituting the partitioning member is bent due to contact with the tablet, the brush is elastically returned to the original state, thereby allowing the tablets to be smoothly partitioned into upper and lower tablets. Thus, the tablets are never be damaged, chipped or cracked and the partitioning member itself does not become damaged even if a tablet has been caught halfway in the pocket.
However, in the tablet feeder described in Japanese patent Laid-open publication H9-39910, there is the disadvantage that since the partitioning member is made of resin, the partition portions can become deformed and, if worst comes to worst, this can lead to damage while repeating the elastic deformation due to contact with the tablets. In this case, there is a problem that a large gap is formed between the brush elements constituting the brush so that a plurality of tablets drops through the gap, thereby degrading the accuracy of discharging (feeding) tablets.